A new company called Brellabox is looking to rent Umbrellas in New York City and then expand out to other large metropolitan areas. Business Insider reports that the company is similar to ZipCar/Citibike which are overwhelmingly popular, but definitely not in the same realm.
Zipcar relies on the fact that many people in metropolitan areas where their service is available, have a drivers license but may not have their own car. These people generally car pool or take public transportation to work or school and then use a Zipcar say, when they have to drive somewhere for a meeting. Zipcar’s pricing structure make it much more affordable to become a member and rent a Zipcar rather than rent a car from a car rental agency like Hertz or Enterprise.
Citibike is the now infamous New York City bike sharing program. You can rent Citibike’s at strategically placed kiosks and use them for commuting about town. All you need to do is drop the bike off at another Citibike rack. Again, the pricing and convenience of the service compliment each other.
Brellabox seems like a convenient idea at first. You pay $2.50 and rent a disposable Umbrella. At that rate you must return the umbrella to another Brellabox, however you can decide not to return it, a la Redbox, and pay just $15.00 for it. Seems easy enough, and probably cheap enough to thousands of New Yorker’s working on Wall Street and in Manhattan. The umbrellas are also significantly priced lower than say a designer umbrella from a retail store. And, of course everyone knows that the day it rains buckets and buckets the last thing we remember to take with us is an umbrella.
But Brellabox may be threatened by this guy and the hundreds of guys that swarm the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Dallas (and of course many other cities as well). Brellabox admits that their umbrellas are “disposable” which would put them on par with the umbrellas that umbrella vendors typically sell for $5.00. Now while you’ll pay double the rental fee at Brellabox, the umbrella is yours to keep.
Brellabox insists in their video that the umbrellas available from the vendors are “flimsy” but wouldn’t their umbrellas be just as flimsy being that they are “disposable”. They also talk about the umbrella vendors wares getting thrown right in the trashcan, 
again something that Brellabox says you can do if you pay $15. Sure most of these umbrellas end up in trash cans, but even if you hold onto the umbrella for the entire day or even two days, you’re getting your money’s worth. Also the total cost of acquisition for the umbrella, should you decide to just throw it away, is three times less than that of the Brellabox umbrella.
In order to compete with the umbrella vendors of the world Brellabox is going to need to have a box on just about every street corner and in front of every popular building in New York City, because that’s where you find the umbrella vendors. They also may want to cover the Brellabox machines up because you wouldn’t want to get soak and wet waiting on the umbrella machine to take your card information.
The umbrella vendor actually comes with another convenience. They will typically walk right up to you, even while you’re under the protection of an awning or other covered shelter, making the transaction dry even in the wettest of rains. Finally, the last time I was in New York, the umbrella vendor I bought my umbrella from took square, so yeah, you can pay with a debit card.
Here’s Brellabox’s video:
